El Salvador Ends Unilateral Truce, Charges Rebels Ignore Peace Plan

SAN SALVADOR — The government announced Thursday that it will lift a unilateral cease-fire today and resume military action against leftist guerrillas because the rebels ignored a Central American peace plan and continued fighting.

Foreign Minister Ricardo Acevedo Peralta and Defense Minister Carlos Vides Casanova issued a statement saying that El Salvador "has complied with the peace accords" but that because the rebels are still fighting, the army will resume offensives.

Acevedo said the army was returning to "normal" military actions at 12:01 a.m. today.

The leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front denounced the move, saying "throughout the war the . . . government has been the one to oppose any sort of negotiated cease-fire, which the FMLN has always requested."

"We are ready for a real cease-fire, but always on the basis of a process of change in the economic, political and social conditions," the rebels said in a statement.

The rebels had refused to accept the unilateral truce, saying any cease-fire under the Central American peace plan had to be negotiated with the rebels.

President Jose Napoleon Duarte announced the unilateral cease-fire Nov. 5 to comply with the Guatemala peace accord signed Aug. 7 by the presidents of five Central American nations.